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<a name="Invoking-G_002b_002b"></a>
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Next: <a href="C-Dialect-Options.html#C-Dialect-Options" accesskey="n" rel="next">C Dialect Options</a>, Previous: <a href="Overall-Options.html#Overall-Options" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Overall Options</a>, Up: <a href="Invoking-GCC.html#Invoking-GCC" accesskey="u" rel="up">Invoking GCC</a> &nbsp; [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Indices.html#Indices" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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<hr>
<a name="Compiling-C_002b_002b-Programs"></a>
<h3 class="section">3.3 Compiling C++ Programs</h3>

<a name="index-suffixes-for-C_002b_002b-source"></a>
<a name="index-C_002b_002b-source-file-suffixes"></a>
<p>C++ source files conventionally use one of the suffixes &lsquo;<samp>.C</samp>&rsquo;,
&lsquo;<samp>.cc</samp>&rsquo;, &lsquo;<samp>.cpp</samp>&rsquo;, &lsquo;<samp>.CPP</samp>&rsquo;, &lsquo;<samp>.c++</samp>&rsquo;, &lsquo;<samp>.cp</samp>&rsquo;, or
&lsquo;<samp>.cxx</samp>&rsquo;; C++ header files often use &lsquo;<samp>.hh</samp>&rsquo;, &lsquo;<samp>.hpp</samp>&rsquo;,
&lsquo;<samp>.H</samp>&rsquo;, or (for shared template code) &lsquo;<samp>.tcc</samp>&rsquo;; and
preprocessed C++ files use the suffix &lsquo;<samp>.ii</samp>&rsquo;.  GCC recognizes
files with these names and compiles them as C++ programs even if you
call the compiler the same way as for compiling C programs (usually
with the name <code>gcc</code>).
</p>
<a name="index-g_002b_002b"></a>
<a name="index-c_002b_002b"></a>
<p>However, the use of <code>gcc</code> does not add the C++ library.
<code>g++</code> is a program that calls GCC and automatically specifies linking
against the C++ library.  It treats &lsquo;<samp>.c</samp>&rsquo;,
&lsquo;<samp>.h</samp>&rsquo; and &lsquo;<samp>.i</samp>&rsquo; files as C++ source files instead of C source
files unless <samp>-x</samp> is used.  This program is also useful when
precompiling a C header file with a &lsquo;<samp>.h</samp>&rsquo; extension for use in C++
compilations.  On many systems, <code>g++</code> is also installed with
the name <code>c++</code>.
</p>
<a name="index-invoking-g_002b_002b"></a>
<p>When you compile C++ programs, you may specify many of the same
command-line options that you use for compiling programs in any
language; or command-line options meaningful for C and related
languages; or options that are meaningful only for C++ programs.
See <a href="C-Dialect-Options.html#C-Dialect-Options">Options Controlling C Dialect</a>, for
explanations of options for languages related to C.
See <a href="C_002b_002b-Dialect-Options.html#C_002b_002b-Dialect-Options">Options Controlling C++ Dialect</a>, for
explanations of options that are meaningful only for C++ programs.
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